Unisys wins VHA patient management, accounting solutions

Unisys Corp. will work to improve patient management, billing and collections capabilities at the Veterans Health Administration, a unit of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Unisys officials announced today.

Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys won the VHA's Patient Financial Services Systems contract. The first phase of the contract is a pilot program in the VA's Ohio Veteran's Integrated Service Network, which will end in summer 2005.

At that point, if Unisys has performed well, the VHA will adopt the solution nationwide, Unisys spokeswoman Lisa Meyer said. If the solution is rolled out nationwide, the contract will be worth $139 million over four years, Meyer said.

The VHA operates 163 hospitals and 859 clinics in the United States.

Under the contract, Unisys will provide systems integration and consulting services to deliver and implement Flowcast, a commercial, off-the-shelf solution from IDX Systems Corp. The Flowcast suite includes patient access management, patient financials, document imaging and business intelligence.

Bob Perreault, VHA's chief business officer, said the solution "will radically improve VHA's business processes, provide improved tools for our employees and ultimately enable improved health care services to veterans."